Free · No sign-up · 16 categories
What is this old thing, and how old is it really?
Style is copied constantly — reproduction furniture, revival glass, deliberate fakes — so a convincing Victorian look can be forty years old. Manufacturing method is much harder to fake, because it follows from the tools that existed at the time. A circular saw mark cannot predate circular saws, and that is the kind of evidence worth working from.
Antique Identifier: Relicari — Free★ 3.7 · 6 ratings · iPhone & iPad
- Construction evidence, not style
- Reproduction tells on every page
- Honest notes on value
1.What is it made of?
optionalThe broadest split, and the one that decides which evidence is worth looking for.
2.What construction evidence can you see?
optionalLook at the parts nobody finished — the back of a case, the underside of a top, the base of a bottle. Pick everything that applies.
3.Are there any marks?
optionalMarks are the fastest dating evidence when they exist. A registry diamond, a hallmark or a patent number can date an object to the year.
- Bakelite and Early Plastics1920–1945
- Cast Iron Cookware1890–1945
- Costume Jewellery1920–1970
- Dovetailed DrawersVaries
- Early Photographs1830–1920
- Furniture FinishesVaries
- Oil Lamps1830–1890
- Old BottlesVaries
- Pocket Watches1830–1920
- Postcards1890–1945
- Pressed Glass1830–1890
- Quilts and Coverlets1830–1945
- Saw Marks on TimberVaries
- Silver HallmarksVaries
- Transferware1830–1890
- Wooden Boxes and Small CasesVaries
The checks worth learning first
Each one takes seconds and rules out a great deal.
All categories
The kinds of object people most often want dated.
Questions people ask
How do you tell if furniture is genuinely antique?
Pull out a drawer and look at the joints. Hand-cut dovetails are few and irregular with visible scribe lines; machine-cut ones are many and perfectly uniform. Then look for saw marks on unfinished surfaces — curved arcs mean a circular saw, which was not in general use before about 1830.
What does a diamond-shaped mark on pottery mean?
It is a British registry mark, used between 1842 and 1883, and it dates the registration of the design exactly. The codes in each corner give the day, month and year.
Does 'England' on the bottom mean it is old?
It means 1891 or later, when US import law began requiring a country of origin. 'Made in England' generally indicates twentieth century. It is a useful floor rather than a sign of age.
How do you date an old bottle?
Follow the seam. If it stops at the shoulder it is pre-1860; if it stops on the neck it is roughly 1860 to 1915; if it runs all the way over the lip it is machine-made, 1905 onward.
Is my antique valuable?
Probably less than you hope. Age alone drives value very little — condition, originality of surface, maker and demand do almost all of it, and a great many nineteenth-century objects were made in enormous numbers.
What does the app do that this site does not?
It identifies from a photograph, which is quicker when you are standing in a shop. This key is about the construction evidence that actually dates an object, which is not always visible in a picture.